How to: Jailbreak your iPhone, iPad or iTouch using JailbreakMe

Overnight, what has to be the easiest ever jailbreak ever produced, was released. Â Produced by @comex “JailbreakMe” is a browser based jailbreak mechanism for your iPhone, iPad and ITouch. Â The only requirement being your iDevice should be running firmware 3.1.2 or newer.

It really couldn’t be a simpler process to undertake. Â Simply open Safari on your iDevice, browse to http://jailbreakme.com and then slide your finger across the screen to start the jailbreak process. Â (You are recommended to backup your iDevice before you begin).

JailbreakMe's starting screen

Reported issues

Not long after JailbreakMe was released there were reports of Facetime not working and MMS functionality being missing. Â These issues have now been rectified by the jailbreak team. Â If you jailbreak from here on in, you won’t have the problem. Â If you jailbroke your device within the first few hours of JailbreakMe’s release, then simply run a Cydia update and you’ll be back in business again.

If, when running the installer, you get a purple screen, hard reboot your iDevice (press and hold both home and power until you see the white Apple logo) and start again. Â This can happen when the jailbreak servers are under huge load due to sheer demand for the jailbreaking toolset. Â If you still continue to get a purple screen try the following:

Go to Settings > Safari > Clear History, Clear Cookies, Clear Cache

Reboot your iPhone

Try JailbreakMe.com again

Sim Unlock

The sim unlock to accompany this release (Ultrasn0w) should be available within the next 48 hours. Â The jailbreak team are currently undertaking a private beta of the latest iPhone 4 ready tool so they can iron out any last minute issues.

Ensuring you can always jailbreak iOS4

It won’t be long before Apple close the hole that the jailbreak team are currently exploiting. Â To ensure you are always able to jailbreak your iOS4 device, you should save what are referred to as your SHSH blobs as soon as humanly possible. Â Cydia does this for you automatically when you’ve a jailbroken device; however the best way to do so is with a simple tool called Firmware Umbrella.

Advice about installing jailbroken applications

At the time of writing you will find that not all of the software that’s available on the Cydia or Rock repositories has been updated to work with iOS4. Â As such, I would recommend you review this Google App Spreadsheet or alternatively this wiki page, to see if something is safe to use. Â If you install something that’s not compatible, there’s every chance your iDevice will crash and require a restore before you can use it again.

Thoughts

Making the jailbreak simple, so much so that anyone can use it, isn’t a bad thing. Â It makes the jailbroken world so much more available to even more people. Â It’s early days, but the only two downsides I can currently see to this process are:

The potential extra resource drain on your battery (haven’t had enough time what it’s like yet).

If you want to remove the jailbreak, you have to do a full restore and when you do so, your user data isn’t (reportedly) preserved. Â i.e. settings for applications.

Have you jailbroken your iPad, iPhone or iTouch using this process? Â How did it go for you? Â Are you delighted to finally be able to use your iPhone 4 or iPad with the wonderful applications and tools available via the Cydia platform? Â Please share with us your experiences in the comments section below.

Edited 02/08/10 17:45 – Added details of how to clear Safari cache in the event of repeatedly getting a purple screen when jailbreaking.Edited 03/08/10 11:10 – Added details about ensuring you are cautious about checking application compatibility.